Celebrated theorems of Roth and of Matoušek and Spencer together show that the discrepancy of arithmetic progressions in the first $$n$$ positive integers is $$\Theta (n^{1/4})$$ . We study the analogous problem in the $$\mathbb {Z}_n$$ setting. We asymptotically determine the logarithm of the discrepancy of arithmetic progressions in $$\mathbb {Z}_n$$ for all positive integer $$n$$ . We further determine up to a constant factor the discrepancy of arithmetic progressions in $$\mathbb {Z}_n$$ for many $$n$$ . For example, if $n=p^k$ is a prime power, then the discrepancy of arithmetic progressions in $$\mathbb {Z}_n$$ is $$\Theta (n^{1/3+r_k/(6k)})$$ , where $$r_k \in \{0,1,2\}$$ is the remainder when $$k$$ is divided by $$3$$ . This solves a problem of Hebbinghaus and Srivastav.
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On the variance of squarefree integers in short intervals and arithmetic progressions
Abstract We evaluate asymptotically the variance of the number of squarefree integers up to x in short intervals of length $$H < x^{6/11 - \varepsilon }$$ H < x 6 / 11 - ε and the variance of the number of squarefree integers up to x in arithmetic progressions modulo q with $$q > x^{5/11 + \varepsilon }$$ q > x 5 / 11 + ε . On the assumption of respectively the Lindelöf Hypothesis and the Generalized Lindelöf Hypothesis we show that these ranges can be improved to respectively $$H < x^{2/3 - \varepsilon }$$ H < x 2 / 3 - ε and $$q > x^{1/3 + \varepsilon }$$ q > x 1 / 3 + ε . Furthermore we show that obtaining a bound sharp up to factors of $$H^{\varepsilon }$$ H ε in the full range $$H < x^{1 - \varepsilon }$$ H < x 1 - ε is equivalent to the Riemann Hypothesis. These results improve on a result of Hall (Mathematika 29(1):7–17, 1982) for short intervals, and earlier results of Warlimont, Vaughan, Blomer, Nunes and Le Boudec in the case of arithmetic progressions.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1902063
- PAR ID:
- 10377025
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Geometric and Functional Analysis
- Volume:
- 31
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 1016-443X
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 111 to 149
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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